Some printed media sheets (sometimes referred to herein as “edge-to-edge printed media sheets”) contain content that extends up to one or more edges of the sheet. For example, an image, a pattern, and/or text on a printed surface of a given rectangular sheet may extend, without distortion or interruption, up to all four edges of the given sheet. In other words, these printed media sheets which may be professional documents such as color documents, may contain image content that runs to the edge of a sheet of paper, and visually “bleeds” off the page.
Printing devices typically have problems printing to the edge of the paper. Printing devices may exhibit image defects near sheet edges, including paper curling near the sheet edge. Edge-to-edge printed media sheets are produced with such printing devices despite their limitations in printing near the sheet edges. This is done by printing oversized documents, which are then trimmed to the intended final dimensions.
Before printing an oversized document, a document designer typically designs the document's content virtually—e.g., using software to create a file describing the sheet to be printed and the image content in relation to the sheet. For example, an oversized page may be designed containing an image area that is slightly oversized (e.g., in some instances ⅛th of an inch beyond each edge of the desired (target) edge-to-edge printed media sheet), and trim marks may be added to indicate the intended edges of the target sheet. Page layout programs exist for this purpose, and include QuarkXpress and Adobe InDesign. These programs have features that allow for the creation of pages with bleeds.
A problem may arise when a document designer creates one or more virtual pages with image content that runs to the edge of the paper, but does not provide a slightly oversized bleed image or the associated trimming marks. This can occur, for example, if the document was designed with a composition tool that does not support bleeds, or if an existing hardcopy document is being reproduced. Print producers faced with this problem frequently compensate for the lack of bleed image by scaling up the page content to achieve a slightly oversized image. This solution may present problems, for example, when the page content has information near the edges of the paper which will be lost upon trimming, or if the page has size-sensitive information such as logos or graphic elements whose size needs to be maintained constant.